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No Outside Food or Drink Allowed

It’s a familiar sight in many casual restaurants: the sign warning patrons against bringing in outside food or beverages. Some offer an explanation — the health code requires you to consume only those items bought in the restaurant in which you are sitting. (Ah, the cleansing power of money.)

Apart from legitimate, if oblique, sanitary concerns, the signs always seem like an attempt to browbeat brown-baggers into shelling out for a slice of pizza. But in the experience of one restaurant consultant, Aaron D. Allen, who recently tried to bring an outside tea into Le Bernardin, the phenomenon cuts across all price points. He writes:

“Sir, we will dispose of that for you, but you cannot bring it inside,” the hostess said, referring to my Starbucks tea, while looking at it as if I was holding a bag of freshly scooped dog poop.

“Um, yeah, but I just bought it and it’s only now cooled to the point to drink. … I’m happy to buy another here in addition to this one, but I’m suffering from a bit of a caffeine headache and would like to finish it,” I said. …

… I can fully understand a restaurant turning away a patron who is trying to bring in alcohol, or a movie theater refusing to allow outside food and beverage. I cannot, however, understand why such a highly rated restaurant would turn away lunch business in the middle of a recession with such careless abandon.

Not only was I extremely frustrated by the situation, I immediately shared this experience with my nearly 8,000 Twitter followers (most of whom are restaurant industry professionals and media). I vowed to never again attempt to return to Le Bernardin and –- no matter the company or occasion -– if the name Le Bernardin comes up, I plan to deliver a very passionate message about why I am boycotting their restaurant for life.

Now, before hailing the writer as a folk hero, there are two potential problems with his attitude.

The first is that the whole story seems to rest on the presumption that if he is going to fork over $55 on a meal at one of the best restaurants in the city, he ought to be indulged a little and allowed to bring in his coffee, a sort of reverse noblesse oblige. This is not how snooty restaurant maître d’s see the world, and when you need a table, their world is all that matters.

The second is that he is obviously violating a standard restaurant rule that most of us recognize (all those signs!). Even without a “no outside food” warning at Le Bernadin, who would expect to bring in his own beverage? And if the issue is that he just bought it and did not want to waste the money throwing it out, well then, maybe next time just brown-bag the whole lunch.

But of course, as Mr. Allen observes in another recent post (and as City Room has been exploring this week), complaining is in our blood: “The United States of America was founded on complaining.”

Greg Ball, a Republican assemblyman, has pushed the idea of a tax revolt over several issues, most recently a proposed payroll tax to help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority cover its budget shortfalls. This was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” LoHudreported Mr. Ball as saying. A conservative, the assemblyman is a strong proponent of gun rights, a stance driven home in a recent campaign mailing, as Ms. Benjamin points out.

“The end game is April 15,” Mr. Ball reportedly told The Journal News. “So lock and load and bring the pitchforks.”

Meanwhile in the Bronx, Boogiedowner is encouraging a more measured bit of civic involvement on a more quotidian concern: the creation of a dog run in St. Mary’s Park. According to the parks department’s Web site, there are only six dedicated dog runs in the borough, compared with 12 in Brooklyn and 30 in Manhattan. (In the absence of a run, dogs are allowed off leash in most parks before 9 a.m. and after 9 p.m.)

And one nice thing about dog runs is that even though you have to leave your gun at home, you can always bring in your tea.

Around the Web from link to link; today’s chatter in the New York City blogosphere. Have a tip? E-mail us at NewYorkOnline@nytimes.com.

An alternative to throwing the just-right tea into the garbage would have been to transfer the beverage to a house porcelean teacup. This would have allowed the restaurant to remain uncluttered by foreign-logo paper cups, while treating the patron with respect.

I think I would have summoned a waiter or bus boy and said, ‘please transfer this into a mug for this gentleman and return it to him?’, with the gentle admonition that the customer not do it again. A mug is a totable as a cocktail glass, and nothing is lost save a tad bit of tea.

I used to unabashedly brown bag it when I worked for Warner Brothers Pictures
Within three days everybody else there was doing the same.
And speaking of brownbagging
I saw the ultimate brown bagger yesterday when I boarded the cross town bus.
The driver was sitting behind the wheel eating a pizza.
And here I was hoping the Transit Authority would enforce their rule about no food on the buses or subways!

After an overwhelming response to my original post, I have written a follow up regarding Le Bernardin at my blog. I find the outpouring of mean-spirited remarks quite surprising, rude, uncalled for and part of the reason service in America suffers today: //aaronallen.com/articles/le-bernardin-update. The point wasn’t to keep the tea.

The ironic part of this story is that Starbuck’s allows you to bring anything into their store to enjoy with their beverages. I’ve bought my $1.79 tall bold and set myself down to enjoy my brown bagged lunch and have NEVER been approached or even given a disparaging glance. Of course, I would not think of doing this at a restaurant, especially of the caliber of Le Bernardin. I agree the hostess should have presented the patron with the very lovely offer of a tea cup and saucer. Problem solved. Everybody lost out in this situation.

There is a sense of entitlement in my generation that is just beyond words. Every story is always the same.

First the writer acknowledges the rule they know they tried to break. Next they then give an elaborate reason why the rule should not apply to them personally. The explanation almost always include another instance of blaming another party (“I know I was late to the airport, but the cab driver…”)

Then they proceed to explain how they will “punish” the offending party… for not allowing them to bend the rules.

Finally, no explanation is ever actually given as to what the offending party did wrong. I suppose that is almost always because the fault belongs to the bearer of the complaint!

Aaron you state that the commenters on your blog made remarks that were “rude” and “uncalled for.” Do you feel attacking Le Bernardin for following health department regulations was “uncalled for?”

I’m just curious because in my experience people that are quick to criticize others often have a difficult time acknowledging their own behavior. Do you feel that the owners and staff of Le Bernardin may have been hurt or upset about your 8,000 twitters and your promise to criticize for their establishment “for life.”

I find this attitude astonishing, that one can simply march into any restaurant one pleases with one’s own food and drink. Restaurants are in business to make money by selling their food and drinks, not by accommodating the immature adults who wish to bring in their own fare. I see this attitude all the time at a cafe where I eat breakfast—people bringing in Starbucks coffee and presuming they can drink their latte, cappuccino, or tea in an establishment that features all manner of (vastly superior, I might add) latte, cappuccino and tea. So if it’s ok to bring one’s own Starbucks without a corkage fee, shouldn’t it be ok to bring one’s own wine without a corkage fee? And so on and so forth.

And Aaron Allen calls himself a restaurant consultant?

I thank you for writing this article. I will pleased to forward it to everyone in the restaurant business I know. Allen should perhaps consider a new profession.

This Allen fellow is a “restaurant consultant”? Who would possibly hire this fool for his restaurant expertise if he is going to blame Le Bernardin for a policy that makes sense to any reasonably sane person? Simply unbelievable.

Why does anyone buy a tea and then walk into a restaurant, anyway? He should have finished his tea, then went inside. And yes, the restaurant might have offered to transfer it to a proper cup, but just because they didn’t, you’re going to boycott them? That is insanity.

I take decaf teabags with me wherever I go, because most restaurants have only herbal decaf teas — not my choice — and I can’t drink caffeinated beverages due to a cardiac arrhythmia. Different, I know, from carrying a container of hot tea into a restaurant — let alone Le Bernardin — but I don’t see why the restaurant couldn’t have provided Mr. Allen with a ceramic cup and let him take his drink to his table. What’s the big deal?

Sure, he overreacted, and I see no reason to boycott Le Bernadin — but the restaurant has a snobby, unreasonable policy and should lighten up.

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